


Bleeding Slowly

by Anzella



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, F/M, Sad Fluff, fic insp: secret by the birthday massacre, idk - Freeform, or wait isn't that just angst?, spoiler alert: solas is brooding, what a shocker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 09:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16573700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anzella/pseuds/Anzella
Summary: Gods aren't supposed to bleed--at least not externally.





	Bleeding Slowly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mykie](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Mykie).



> my part of an art trade with overboss on tumblr <3

Solas didn't mean to lurk among the battlements. While he tried to hide it, the closer the Inquisition got to Corypheus, the more restless he became. Painting just wasn't enough, nor was walking the fade. So instead, he found himself back in the real world, wandering Skyhold and just...watching from the high walls. Different sights each day, regardless of which side of the wall, but even then, he still couldn't distinguish what the point was. The most obvious seemed to be boredom, but the thought alone irritated him and only inspired him to do something else. _Punishment?_ The future was an uncertainty to everyone including him, and perhaps watching the daily lives of those under the Inquisition ranks was to ground him--remind him that his mistakes have consequences, and soon he would have to pay his due. _Maybe the awareness alone_ , he thought, _is enough to separate me from Corypheus_.

  
The third, was the Inquisitor herself. An unexpected variable, and yet, not a surprising one. Every story needs a hero just as much a villain, it seemed. The Dalish woman often roamed the fortress' yards and the garden as if it were any other scouting trip outside the walls. Solas couldn't help but watch as she lingered around the refugee area, a few children tailing behind her. Mountain wind being the only sound in his ears, he leaned against the battlements as Arden chatted with the kids, their faces glowing with whatever she had just spoken. She lowered herself onto the grass, crossing her legs, as Solas noticed a soft smile still lingering on her face. The effervescent children remained standing, and instead came up behind her before taking strands of her silver tresses into their hands, combing and weaving as much of the long hair as they could. The morning sun shined off of it like fresh snow as it moved through their small fingers.

  
Some time after they had begun, he had made his way back inside Skyhold, once again wonder-struck at the sight of lonesome walls being filled with life for the first time in...ages. Aside from the rooms above him, he was by himself when he entered the rotunda. The painted murals danced underneath the lit torches as he approached his table and prepared his materials to finish the new mural inches away.

  
A sigh left his mouth before he walked over to the wall and glanced around. He tapped the paintbrush against his chin, the chalky paint mixture filling his nose and taunting him all the same. If he wasn't supposed to be mortal, then why did he feel like one? Aching with so much pain and love simultaneously towards another was a cruel game to play on himself. Taking time memorizing her like words on a page, filling him with false hope only to be shattered by the weight of his reality--their reality--each ending with Arden facing the aftermath of his mistakes. Keeping himself in her heart this long already meant that he would have to make a choice--one that would destroy him more than he initially thought--and hope that she was strong enough to deal with the fallout that could make her question everything she ever knew. Ironically, she had already made him do the same. He never would have thought the woman was full of dimension so deep that exploring the fade looked like a stroll through Fereldan's fields, but he wasn't ready to stop diving.

  
In truth, he never would be.

  
"Solas,"

  
He turned around and saw Arden in front of the table, her braided hair up in an intricate mess of a bun, and a grin on her face. "What do you think?"

  
Solas felt a smile--albeit a sad one--grow on his face, "Marvelous, _ma vhenan_."


End file.
